MANURES. 139 



organically of all those elements that enter into the various 

 organisms upon which he has subsisted, and still subsists. 



The manures most common are animal, green crops, peat, 

 muck, mud, poudrctte, bones, guano, fish and animals, refuse of 

 factories, wool, soot, ashes, lime, marl, phosphate, superphos- 

 phate, gypsum, salt, and other specifics and compounds too 

 numerous to mention. 



Composting consists of mixing the different manurial sub- 

 stances ; or, in other words, of converting the animal or stable 

 manures into compost, by mixing them with some or all of the 

 following — to wit, loam, peat, muck, pond mud, cleanings of 

 drains, wash of roads, leached ashes, using sandy loam or marly 

 clay, according to the nature of the soil where the compost 

 is to be used. Into your compost heap throw weeds before 

 the seeds form, straw, litter, animal excretions, night soil, the 

 urine of the stables and all that can be saved elsewhere, the 

 wash from the sink drain, the suds of a washing day, and cxqvy 

 thing else whose decomposition and fermentation furnish fer- 

 tilizers for the soil, and which would otherwise render your 

 premises filthy and stenchy. 



Every farmer has ever-producing resources of some or all of 

 these manurial substances, which he cannot well afford to lose, 

 and which, if saved and composted, would enable him to make 

 several cords more of manure than hitherto every year, which 

 would readily sell, if he has no land upon which he wishes to 

 use it. Besides, he will keep his premises clean and free from 

 offensive smells, indicative not only of bad economy, but of a 

 very criminal disregard for health and comfort. There are 

 many who call themselves farmers that would consider them- 

 selves wronged if any one should question their claim to this 

 noble title ; who claim to be great economists, yet have never 

 learned the distinction between economy on the one hand, and 

 stinginess and parsimoniousness on the other, having no claim 

 to the former, yet possessing the latter in full exercise in all 

 that pertains to the mental improvement of their families ; that 

 suffer filth and nastiness of every kind to accumulate about the 

 " back door" and yard, being horribly offensive; with a drain, 

 perhaps, from both hogsty and barnyard, pouring the liquid 

 manure into the highway, a nuisance to every passer by. 



